In this episode of “You Write the Top, I’ll Write the Bottom,” we see the results of indecision: Is hairstyle one word or two?
The American Heritage Dictionary says it’s one word and that hairstylist is one word, too.
Let’s just lop that off!
August 16, 2012 — LauraSome writers have a special talent for humor. And some writers are funny, but not intentionally. That’s the case with this gal who writes for Yahoo! Shine. Her writing always makes me chuckle, especially when she tries to expand her limited vocabulary by using words in new, creative ways. Like the word lob, which means “to throw in a high arc.” Using it here is just so funny:
Do you think the writer knew that lop would have made more sense in that context? As for the apostrophe in what should be its: I wish she had just lopped that off.
Her use of punctuation is kinda fun, too. Like the quotation marks that imply maybe the dude’s name really wasn’t Buddha:
The character was Hermione Granger and she doesn’t need a comma separating her from her verb. And here, having a bit of mischievous fun, the writer decides to split a haircut:
It’s not a generic bandage; ACE is a trademark:
Ooh! Ooh! Now haircut gets an unnecessary hyphen:
And I have no idea what she’s trying to communicate here, but I suspect there’s a word missing:
See? I told you this writer was funny!
I’m only going to say this once
December 8, 2010 — LauraOK, I’m going to say this once: This writer for Yahoo! Shine is clueless when it comes to punctuation. I don’t want to keep repeating myself so I’ll just tell you now: I circled all the misplaced punctuation and missing punctuation. (Misplaced punctuation? That’s usually a comma or a period that belongs before a closing quotation mark. Missing punctuation? Most often it’s quotation marks that have gone missing around the title of a movie.)
I’m totally clueless when it comes to the first sentence here. What the hell is that supposed to mean?
Wow! Here’s a sentence without incorrect punctuation! Unfortunately the writer doesn’t know how to spell heroine:
Did I mention she likes to add unnecessary punctuation, like a hyphen in haircut?
Everyone knows the actress is Kirsten Dunst. Everyone except this so-called professional writer:
She’s still Kirsten Dunst:
This time, the missing punctuation is a comma before but:
(When joining two independent clauses with but, put a common before the conjunction.)
More of the stuff I said I didn’t want to talk about:
Here’s a new punctuation error (new for this article): The writer likes a hyphen in broke out. I don’t, however.
OK, now she isn’t even trying. It’s Hilary Swank, with one L in the Hilary part:
Whew! That went pretty well, doncha think?
What writing mistakes are you making?
August 23, 2010 — LauraAre you making the same mistakes as this writer for Yahoo! Shine? Errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation can make you look careless, uneducated, and maybe even a little dim.
How many of these errors are you guilty of? When writing a title like “Seinfeld” do you put it in quotation marks, so your readers know it’s the TV show — and not the title character —you’re talking about? How about spelling the character’s name correctly? Her name is Elaine Benes. And Nike is a trademark with a big boy N:
Do you check your facts before publishing? The mom on “Family Ties” was actually Elyse Keaton. Look it up. While you’re at it, try figuring out what you meant to write when you pecked out “drafting her architecture work.”
A roundup of the mistakes here wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the unnecessary hyphens, the split without, the period that should be a question mark, and the goofy opinionation:
Did you mean “Double Trouble” was short-lived?
Did you add one and one and come up with three? A mom and daughter aren’t really a trio, unless one of them is suffering from multiple personality disorder. The show “One Day at a Time” needs some way to let folks know it’s a title (like quotation marks) and Mom’s haircut needs a little help. A question mark ending that sentence would be better:
Hillman College without its cap C is just another blunder in the staggering number of errors, including the missing apostrophes in this paragraph:
The worst mistake this writer makes? Insulting her readers. Publishing her work without fact-checking or even spell-checking shows a complete lack of respect for her audience.
If you can’t write well, at least write a lot
August 10, 2010 — LauraIf you can’t write well, then at least write a lot. That seems to be the philosophy of at least one writer for Yahoo! Shine. Shunning the conventions of punctuation and spelling, this prolific writer creates her own rules. From the misplaced apostrophe here:
to the horrendously misspelled Halle Berry, no article she writes is ever free of her innovations. Hyphens are used to part words like haircut, but are dropped from ages:
If gray hair is the mark of wisdom, what is the mark of an inventive writer? Using the wrong word and dropping punctuation qualify. Calling Oprah Winfrey “the Queen of Daytime” when she’s usually referred to as the Queen of Daytime TV also qualifies.
By now we all know this writer hates the hyphens that belong in expressions like 46-year-old:
Her creativity extends to “Today” show host Meredith Vieira:
So novel! So inventive!
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Terribly Write 
